oh honey, i still want you now
by cursedhazel
Summary: "i've liked you for longer than you'll ever know, and as i sit here watching the glow from the tv light up your sleeping face, i'm realizing that i'd be an idiot if i didn't tell you." or, in which it's the middle of the night, Percy has a crush on his best friend, and impromptu buying gas station Doritos is the best idea he's had in years. au. one-shot.


**disclaimer: contains major fluff, like sickeningly sweet fluff, not unlike cotton candy**

The light from the TV contorts the shadows across her sleeping face, and Percy's never been more in love.

As she lays across his chest, head tucked in the crook of his arm and the scent of her fading perfume making his heart beat hard, he doesn't have the heart to wake her. She was so peaceful when she slept; she didn't have that little crinkle between her eyebrows, and her semi-permanent frown fell into a little pout.

She was so beautiful it hurt.

It was a Friday night, which meant it was their weekly movie night, and Percy knew the minute he decided to put on Finding Nemo Annabeth would be asleep in twenty minutes tops. She had promised she wouldn't, because the two had started the movie a total of five times since their tradition started and she never once finished it, but her eyelids started drooping before the squid girl could ink.

Nemo and his fishtank friends were at the dentist's office now, and all Percy wanted to do was hold her for a little while longer.

There were many times these past few months Percy wanted to tell Annabeth how he felt: at lunch a few weeks ago when the sunlight streaming through the window turned her blonde hair golden, and she looked like an angel on Earth; at the ice cream shop a few blocks away a few days ago, when she had gotten ice cream on her nose and got mad that he didn't tell her until half an hour later.

He thought it was worth it.

Annabeth shifts a little in his arms, and just as he's about to move, and she only snuggles deeper into him.

She would be the death of him, and he would let her kill him.

And for the next three minutes, he tries his darndest to watch the movie for the umpteenth time to distract himself from how her little snores made his stomach flutter, but it didn't work. Nothing would, and nothing had ever successfully distracted him from the enormous crush he had on his best friend since the seventh grade, when this tall and confident blonde stood up for him against his middle school bully. Things had hardly changed since then; Percy was taller and stronger now, but she still walked through the halls like she had nothing to fear. He would always admire her for that, how she let nothing get to her.

Almost nothing.

He'd been there for her every time something had slipped through the cracks in her shield, and seeing Annabeth broken was something he never wants to see again. He wishes he could snap his fingers and make all her problems go away, but he couldn't.

He was always a shoulder to cry on, but sometimes, he wanted to be more than that.

Most of the time he wanted to be more than that.

Ananbeth stirs again, and before he could even register it, her eyes blink open and she groans.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asks, turning her head towards Percy. She rubs her fingers under her eye before she scrunches her eyebrows at him. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Percy flushes and he hopes it was too dark for her to notice. "You looked so peaceful, and I know you haven't been getting the sleep you need lately."

He tries to sit up a little, but Annabeth grabs his arm and pushes him back down. "You're warm," she says, and she shifts so her head is laying on his chest and not crushing his arm like it was. She pulls his other arm from under her back and puts it around her shoulders, curling fully into Percy's side before she settles again. "I'm cold."

He gulps as silently as he could and prays that she doesn't feel his heart pounding in his chest. "Comfortable?"

She lets out a small sigh and nods her head. "Yeah." Her voice is a little croaky. "I'm sorry, I just wanted you to be comfortable too. You could've told me I was crushing you into the sofa."

Percy shrugs. "I didn't want to wake you."

She looks up at him with big gray eyes and rolls them. "You said that. Stop being so concerned with my sleep schedule, dude, this is our movie night, and I broke the first rule of it."

"It's not the first time you've done that."

She scoffs at him and turns to the TV, her head falling back into his chest. "How are they already at the dentist's office? How long was I out?"

She goes to brush a chunk of hair behind her ear, and he hates that his breath catches at their brushing hands. Annabeth and Percy cuddle more than what was probably normal for a couple of friends, and it makes Percy feel both elated and awful. He knows Annabeth didn't think anything romantic about laying on her best friend's shoulder, and he felt guilty about how happy it made him when she was so close to him. All he ever wanted to do was be close to her.

Didn't she want to be close to him too?

"About an hour," he says (and his voice only breaks a little bit.) "It's a little past ten."

And he doubted that she did want to be close to him like that, but it was nights like this when they're sharing their body heat and their personal bubbles merged into one big enough for the both of them when he could almost believe she thought about him like he thought about her.

But when she talked to him about her crushes (she had a big one on Luke Castellan their freshman year, and Percy hated his guts when he eventually broke her heart) and pestered him about his (he even dated a girl sophomore year to try to deflect his growing feelings for someone else), he knew she couldn't have felt the same.

It broke his heart, and he didn't know what he could do to fix it.

"Okay," she says, tucking her hands between her knees. "I have to be home by eleven if I want to be alive for work in the morning."

Percy has work in the morning too, but he doesn't have to go in till 11:30 - working at his mom's restaurant got him the best hours he could ask for, but Annabeth was interning at an architecture firm for the summer and needed to impress everyone there if she wanted a job out of college. Percy had no doubt about her ability to snag it, but it was one of her constant worries whenever she did get the time to hang with him.

Seeing her smile when he told her he believed in her was worth every dragging conversation.

She brings herself further into Percy's side, and Percy pretends to watch the movie as Annabeth chuckles at Dory's antics and sniffles at moments of reconciliation between Marlin and his son.

"I don't think I've ever watched the end of this movie," she says as the end credits roll, scooting away from him (much to his disappointment) and stretching her arms above her head. "I can see why you love it so much."

And just like that, it's over, and Percy clicks off his DVR as Annabeth slips on her shoes. He grabs his keys from the coffee table and follows Annabeth out of the door.

His mom's 2009 Nissan Versa putters to the end of the street before he turns onto the main road. Annabeth's apartment was a fifteen-minute drive from his, and he knew the way there by heart from five years of traveling back and forth to her place. Annabeth plugs her phone into the aux cord and flips through several dozen songs before she settles on the one she always plays, singing along softly as Percy approaches a stoplight.

He takes a moment to glance at her. She has one elbow propped on the passenger door, the other hand resting in her lap. Her hair - messier on one side than the other - hung loosely around her shoulders, and after several seconds, he realized she's wearing one of the many shirts she'd stolen from him.

"The light is green, Seaweed Brain."

He blinks a few times before he pushes on the gas. "I knew that."

"Sure you did." He hears the smile on her face.

He knows that he has to tell her how he feels. It was their last summer before they both left for college, and while they were both staying in New York not even an hour away from each other, they wouldn't see each other nearly as often as they did now. He couldn't bear the thought of going off to school in love with his best friend and not having her know.

But she was going to Columbia for Pete's sake.

And Columbia was full of guys much smarter, much more accomplished, much more attractive than Percy, and Annabeth was a beautiful girl in her element. She'd probably get a boyfriend, and he'd have to deal with it - despite it all, she was his best friend, and he'd have to be happy for her no matter what.

But he has to tell her, for the sake of the small part of him aching for the answer to the question burning in the back of his mind.

His stomach rolls as he pulls into the parking lot of her apartment complex. It's 11:03 pm, a time at which people would start to become wary about random cars driving by places of residency that weren't their own, but the security guard outside the door of Annabeth's building recognizes Percy's car and nods at him as he comes to stop in front of the door.

Percy turns on his overhead light as Annabeth unbuckles her seatbelt. She turns to him with a smile her full pink lips. "Despite me being asleep for half of it, I had fun tonight," she says. "But I always have fun with you."

Percy returns her smile with a genuine grin of his own. "I always have fun with you too."

And he was telling the truth: whenever she was around, the room was ten times brighter. She was fun to talk to, and she laughed at stupid jokes, and he didn't think there was anything more adorable than when her eyes crinkled when she laughed.

"But I had more fun," she says, blushing.

"I don't think that's humanly possible."

She narrows her eyes at him. "Jesus, when did we get so corny?"

Percy chuckles. "You started it."

"Maybe I did. But I meant it." He could see the hesitation on her face before she reaches over to grab his hand. His eyes flit downwards before they met hers. "I'm really glad I have you in my life."

It's a mere one palm laying over another, he told himself, but he searches her face for anything that would convince him otherwise. All too soon, she pulls away, tucking chunks of hair behind red ears.

Was that his cue?

"I don't know where I'd be without you, Beth," he says., Adam's apples bobbing in his throat. She smiles into her lap. "I'm glad you're my best friend."

Percy didn't miss how her expression closes up, but before he could say anything about it, she twists her face into a small smile. "Yeah," she says, opening the car door. "I'm glad you're my best friend too."

With that, she gets out of the door and jogs up to the door of her lobby.

Percy doesn't pull away until she's completely out of sight, and the moment she disappears into the elevator with one final wave, he slams his head against the steering wheel.

"I'm such a fucking idiot," he whispers to himself as he puts the car into reverse.

He doesn't even realize he's pulled into the gas station two blocks from her building until he's parked in front of it.

He rummages through the chip aisle for a while before he settles on a bag of Cheez-Its and at least three bags of Cool Ranch Doritos. He doesn't even like Cool Ranch Doritos; they were Annabeth's favorite, so he always had them at his place when she came over.

He should've told her, and he should've told her tonight.

He was going to tell her tonight.

He's in the checkout line when he tries formulating how he would do it, and he was mostly leaning towards the cowardly plan of texting her everything once he was sure she was asleep. He didn't know if he could stand watching those three dots popping up at the bottom of his screen awaiting his ultimate rejection.

But he couldn't leave her with an "I'm glad you're my best friend," when he felt so much more than that.

And then he was in his car again, his bag of snacks sitting in the passenger's seat, and his fingers tapping against his dashboard. That look she had meant something, right? And she never grabbed his hand like that.

Did she love him back?

Was he being an idiot and reading too much into it?

And before he knows it, he's turning back on the street to her apartment and parking in the spot for a vacant residency.

He really needs to stop blacking out while driving.

His legs carry him out of his car, and he enters the lobby doors with a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos in his hand. He didn't know what he was doing. His eyes scans for her apartment number on the buzzer, and he finds his fingers pressing the button.

A few seconds later, the speaker crackles to life. "Hello?" It's Annabeth, not her father, and he's not sure if he was relieved.

"Uh, hey, it's Percy. You… left something in my car."

He can just imagine her raising an eyebrow. The speaker crackles again. "It's late, dude. Is it so important that you needed to turn back around?"

"Yeah, it is."

"Can you tell me what?"

Percy rolls his eyes. "Can you just buzz me in?"

A length of time passes before the elevator doors slide open. "I could've done without the attitude," she says. "I'll see you in a minute."

The ride is simultaneously the longest and shortest one of his life, and when he stepped out of it, he thought his heart was gonna explode from how hard it's beating in his chest.

Her apartment is the fifth one down on the left. 609. He checks his phone before he knocks on the door. It was 11:26.

It's 11:27 when she answers the door, and even in the harsh fluorescent lights of her hallway, her tan skin glows. Her hair was freshly wet from her shower, and another one of Percy's swim shirts billows around her figure.

She was so pretty.

"You could've called me, you know," she says, leaning against the doorframe. She yawns a little as she crosses one long leg over the other. "You're lucky my dad is a hard sleeper, because that speaker is loud."

The corner of his mouth turns up. "I wasn't really thinking about that," he says, running a hand through his hair, hyper aware of how Annabeth studies his every move. "You know, like always."

Annabeth purses her lips before she gestures to the bag in his hand. "I don't remember leaving a bag of Doritos in your car."

Percy's opens his mouth, then closes it, then opens it again to say something along the lines of, "No, you didn't, I was just at the gas station and thought about you," which is the least romantic sentence anybody could muster, and he thrusts the bag at her. She takes them with a close-lipped smile.

"Thank you?" she says, setting the bag on the table on the other side of the wall. "I'll be sure to pack them for my lunch tomorrow."

"Yeah. Good luck, by the way. At the internship."

"Thanks. And good luck to you at your mom's rest-"

"You didn't actually leave anything in my car," he blurts, and he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans shorts. "I just really need to talk to you about something."

She cocks her head to one side, and her hair falls off her shoulder. "Alright. I'm all ears."

His face feels like it's on fire, and he definitely should have prepared a speech before he came here to make the biggest decision in his life other than choosing what college he wanted to commit to, and this encounter probably topped that still.

"I've been meaning to tell you this for a long time, actually. Like, a really long time, and I should have told you a long time ago, but I was just… scared. I'm no less scared now." He laughs nervously, but her face remains unreadable. "But… but I can't hold this from you any longer. We're almost in college now, and something has been bugging me to tell you before we left for weeks, and right now is a really weird time to do it but I don't think my body would have let me go home if I didn't tell you after that "I'm glad you're my best friend" stunt I pulled back in the car-"

"Percy," Annabeth says, smiling, reaching out to touch his arm. "Just spit it out."

Percy takes a deep breath and removes the hand from his arm, intertwining their fingers as he steps a bit too far in her personal bubble. She has to crane her neck a little to look at him, and this close, he noticed how much she was blushing.

"I like you, Annabeth Chase," he says, and he has to let go of her hand in fear of how sweaty his palms just got. "I like you a lot, and I've probably liked you since the day we met but I was stupid and didn't realize that thinking your best friend was the most beautiful person on planet Earth wasn't normal until a few months ago."

Half the weight of the world fell off his shoulders, and he didn't realize how much he was carrying until he could finally breathe again. A little smile grows on his face.

He did it. He finally did it.

Annabeth's breath escapes a little funnily from her throat, and she rubs a hand down her arm. "Oh, wow."

Percy raises an eyebrow. "Wow?"

She nods her head. "Yeah, wow. I just… I had no idea."

Both of his eyebrows shot into his hairline. "You didn't? I could've sworn I was being the obvious person alive."

She shrugs, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip. "And I guess I'm the most oblivious person alive."

The two hold eye contact for longer than deemed comfortable. Her eyes, like clouds before it rained, sparkle with something he doesn't recognize.

But the longer she doesn't say something, the further Percy's heart sinks into his chest.

"So?" he says, taking a small step backwards. "Is there… anything else you have to say?"

She twists one of her curls around her finger, something she did when she was nervous and didn't have a necklace on.

"Um, yeah, there is, actually." Her eyes look towards the ground. "I just… it's a lot to process, and with everything going on in my life right now, all of my personal feelings have been pushed to the back burner. I think that's why I didn't even realize. Looking back, I guess it's kinda obvious now: I always thought you had a strong heartbeat whenever we were cuddling or whatever."

Percy exhaled loudly through his nose. "I guess you could say I get pretty nervous when you're around. But also… I don't. Because when you're around, everything gets so much better at the same time."

She laughs. "You're really laying it on thick, huh?"

"I'm just telling the truth. That was kind of the point of me showing up here at 11:30 at night."

Annabeth sighs and runs her fingers through her hair. "Then I suppose it's time I tell the truth too."

A loud snore comes from the sofa in her living room, and Frederick Chase wriggles onto his side before he settles again. Annabeth looked at Percy sheepishly and she steps into the hallway to close the door behind her.

"Sorry," she says, falling back against the door. "I forgot he was there for a second. It would be super embarrassing if he heard me say this but, Percy… I think I like you too."

Percy's stomach churns as he folds his arms across his chest. "You think?"

"Yeah. I think. Like-" She takes a deep breath "- all this time, I thought I just really loved you for being my best friend, and you were always there for me, and I could talk to you about anything… and then seeing you became my favorite part of everyday, and even though I say I have all this shit going on right now, I don't think I could ever push you to the back burner. And maybe my feelings weren't pushed back as much as they were hidden right in front of me this entire time."

The lights in her hallway flicker for just a moment, and a draft catches from the AC that makes Percy aware that there was a world around them. His feet shuffle on the carpeted hallway.

"What are you saying, Annabeth?"

Her eyes search his face once, and her hand finds the doorknob. "I'm saying that I need time to think about… everything. I'm not sure what I want right now. Like, back in the car, I think I was genuinely upset when you called me your best friend, even though I thought that was all I wanted."

She gives him a grim smile before opening her door. "I really appreciate you coming here and telling me, I really do, and this isn't a rejection of any kind… but I need time. Please."

He pushes his hair away from his face and shakes his head. "I understand. I didn't mean to spring this on you like this."

"It's okay. You probably would've never told me otherwise."

"You're probably right."

She gives him one last look before she closes the door on him and Percy's stuck for at least a solid minute before he can schelp back to the elevator.

He's not gonna say he wasn't disappointed, because to be frank, he was. He was nearly devastated if it wasn't for that small inkling of hope she'd given him, but he thinks he would be even less devastated if she had flat out told him she didn't like him.

But "maybe?"

"Maybe" hurt.

It's close to midnight by the time he makes it back home, and the light from the kitchen illuminates the front room. He wanders into the kitchen to find his mom spooning Lucky Charms into her still lipsticked mouth.

"Hey, hun," she says, sipping milk from the bowl. "I'm assume you just dropped Annabeth off?"

Percy hops up onto the counter adjacent to her and shrugs. "Yeah. She has that internship in the morning."

Sally puts the bowl on the counter and folds her arms over her lilac blouse. "Well, tell her I say good luck."

"Will do. How'd your date with Paul go?"

Percy's mom has been going out with his 10th grade English teacher, Mr. Paul Blofis, for a few months now, which was weird at first considering he almost failed his class and now he was at his home on a biweekly basis, but for some reason, his balding brown hair and terrible taste in suede suits made his mom happy, so Percy couldn't complain all that much.

Sally smiles to herself, brushing a piece of curled brown hair behind her ear. "It went well. We went to the movies, then he brought me to see the stars at Central Park. It was lovely."

"He took you to a public, open space in New York City at night?"

Sally narrows her eyes at him. "And we turned out just fine, Percy."

Percy rolls his eyes, bringing his knees to his chest and resting his chin on top of them. "Luckily."

Sally approaches him and pats the side of his leg. "Alright, what's wrong?"

"I never said anything was wrong."

"It's written all over your face."

"My face is fine, Mom."

With a bit of effort, Sally hoists herself on top of the counter next to him. "Percy, you've been my only company for the past 18 years of my life. I think I know when something is wrong with my son."

Percy heaves a sigh so heavy it shakes his shoulders, and he looks up at his mom with his cheek pressed to his knee. "I'm fine, really."

"Is it Annabeth?"

"Maybe."

Sally rubs Percy's back and he feels like his five years old again after having woken up from a bad dream. His eyes fall closed for a second. "You can talk to me," she says. "I'm pretty well-versed in the realm of relationships now."

The corners of Percy's mouth turn a little upward at his mother's warm eyes looking down at him. "Fine. It's Annabeth."

"What about Annabeth?"

"I… I like her. I think I more than like her, honestly."

Sally's kind smile grows into a huge grin, and Percy groans, putting his head between his knees. "Would it be insensitive to say that I knew it?"

"Yes, Mother, it would be very insensitive seeing as I am wallowing in a lot of self pity right now." His voice comes out muffled, but he can't bear looking at his mother in fear of utter embarrassment.

"There's nothing wrong with having feelings," she says, and she resumes rubbing his back. "I think it's great that you're realizing how you feel. Most men even my age don't know how to do that yet."

He sits all the way up and rests his head against a cabinet. "I mean, I guess, but when I dropped her off tonight, I kind of… told her how I feel."

"And what did she say?"

"That she might like me back, but she needs time to think."

Sallys hums aloud, patting Percy twice on the back before hopping off of the counter. "Well, it sounds like you have to give her that time."

Percy exhales and runs a hand through his hair. "Yeah. I know."

"And who knows how long that might be."

"Yeah. I know."

Sally gives Percy a look, one where she puts one hand on her hip and purses her lips, scrunching her thin eyebrows into a line. "Since when did you know everything?"

"I don't know everything. If I knew everything, I probably wouldn't be in this situation right now."

Her look falls into one of utter sympathies, and she places a hand over his knee. "It'll be alright, hun. I know Annabeth, and she's a smart girl. You were always a priority in each other's lives, and I don't think she'll hold out on you for too long. Whatever she's feeling right now, just make sure you support and respect her decision. I know who I raised."

Percy chuckles and hops down from the counter. "I will. I promise."

"I'm proud of you, Percy."

Percy was 14 when he grew taller than his mother, and Percy would always bring it up as much as possible to spite her. At 18, he's a head taller than her now, making her the perfect height for hugs.

He wraps his arms around her shoulder and pulls her in tight. Sally circles her arms around his back. He rested his head on the crown of hers.

"I'm proud of you too, Mom."

She was warm.

Percy wasn't a heavy sleeper, but if he was tired, it'd take several loud sirens and a bucket of water to the face to wake him up.

Luckily he wasn't tired, or he wouldn't have heard his text notifications sound from under his pillow at 2 o'clock that morning.

Groaning, he drags the one hand he had pinned underneath himself to grab at his phone. The screen lights up.

_Annabeth aka my best friend in the entire world!: I really hope you're awake because I'm outside and I really need to talk to you right now._

Percy immediately puts his phone down and stares at the ceiling, trying gathering his thoughts.

She was outside?

_Percy: you mean, like, outside of my apartment?_

…

_Annabeth aka my best friend in the entire world!: yeah. larry let me up :)_

Of course Larry would.

He's not sure if he should kiss or deck Larry the next time he sees him.

He clambers out of bed onto the pile of clothes gathering at the foot of it, careful not to bump into anything in case his mom woke up. His room was a straight shot through the living to the front door, and the closer he got, the harder every pulse point in his body beat.

He squints at the bright lights of the hallway opens the door to a very distressed Annabeth, fidgeting with her phone in her hand as she stares up at him.

"This seems very familiar," he says, and he still has the croak in his voice from waking up not even two minutes ago. He yawns. "Why are you here so late?"

Annabeth looks him up and down slowly, and Percy realizes that he's not wearing a shirt. He shrugs sheepishly. "Sorry."

"It's fine. Nothing I'm not used to."

Percy grins tiredly, closing the door behind him. "Last time I was shirtless in front of you, you told me you enjoyed the show."

Annabeth blushes hard, smacking her phone against the palm of her hand. "Did I?"

"I might be paraphrasing a little."

"I think you are."

He licks his bottom lip, and Annabeth's eye track the movement. He crosses his arms over his bare chest. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Annabeth wasn't one to beat around the bush, which was the first thing to ring the little alarm in Percy's head about something being a bit off. She falls quiet for a moment, her chest heaving up and down heavily, before she can meet his eye again.

"I… couldn't sleep with the thing you told me being all I could think about, and I think that was the first indicator that what I was feeling… was something you'd feel for someone who was more than just a friend to you."

Percy's throat felt tight as the words left her mouth, and when he pushed his hand through his hair, he realizes how much of a mess it probably was. He nods. He thinks he's gonna explode if he talks.

"The second indicator was probably the car thing. I _was_ genuinely upset when you called me your best friend, disappointed, even, because for some reason I was looking for another response I shouldn't have been expecting you to give me.

"The third indicator was probably the hardest one to realize, but in hindsight, it was probably the most obvious one." She laughs, but not in humor. "Percy, when you're holding me, I feel so… safe in your arms, something I don't feel with anybody else. You know I'm not one for physical contact, but with you, I crave it. That sounds so desperate and needy, and I hate sounding like that, but if I'm gonna speak my truth, that's what it is. I just love being around you, and the thought of not seeing you everyday breaks my heart. That sleep on your sofa was probably the best I've gotten in weeks."

There's a cricket somewhere a few doors down he hears chirping, and it's the only other thing he can focus on other than the look of anticipation on Annabeth's face. Her golden blonde hair frames her face that's every bit as red as a tomato, and he doesn't think he'll ever get tired of looking at her.

"Oh wow," he says, and he can't help the smirk on his face. Her mouth falls open and she slaps his arm.

"You're a jerk, you know that, right?"

"But I'm your jerk, so you'll have to deal with it."

She laughs a light and airy laugh when she's tired, and it never failed to put butterflies in his stomach. He reaches out to take her hand.

"So that whole speech," he says, lacing his fingers through hers. "Was it rehearsed?"

She glances down at their hands and a little smile grows on her face. "Only a little bit in the car."

"So what are you telling me?"

He can smell the lemon scented shampoo she always used as he takes a small step closer to her. His eyes flicker down to her lips.

"I'm telling you that… I kinda like you."

"Kinda?"

She rolls her eyes. "I _reall_y like you. Perseus Jackson, I really like you. That's my final answer."

And the two smile dopily at each other like two new lovebirds, and Percy's sure their surveillance camera guy is puking in his mouth, but he couldn't care less. He pulls Annabeth into a hug, and her head falls against his chest and it feels right.

In his head, he's already sure he's in love with her. For months, he'd been in love with her and everything she did, but he didn't have to use that word now, not when it was 2 o'clock in the morning and they were both tired and new to this little thing called love.

Someday.

But not today.

Annabeth pulls away, sighing and reaching out to squeeze both of Percy's hands. "I should get going, or I'm really going to regret staying up so late in the morning."

She lets go, smoothing down the front of his shirt she was wearing. Seeing it on her now felt a lot more satisfying.

"Okay. My mom says good luck at the internship, by the way."

Annabeth smiles. "Tell her I say thank you."

"Will do. Goodnight, Annabeth."

"Goodnight, Percy."

He reenters the apartment and quietly shuts the door behind him, and he feels like he's in one of those teen romances as he falls back against it.

And he totally forgot to do the one thing that he'd been waiting so long to get the chance to do.

He immediately spins on his heels and lunges for the door, preparing for a sprint towards the elevators, but when he opens the door Annabeth is right there with her hand raised like she's about to knock.

"Ah, hey-"

And before either of them knew what was happening, he immediately leans down to capture her lips with his.

It was a brief kiss, one Annabeth barely had time to respond to before someone clears their throat over Percy's shoulder.

"I'm not usually one to break up such joyous reunion, and I'm happy for the both of you, but it's 2:30 in the morning."

Percy turns red all the way to his toes and without even looking, he can feel that Annabeth is too. Sally stands intimidatingly, tapping her foot nearly covered with her fuzzy cat pajamas.

"Sorry, Mom," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

She rolls her eyes, but her smile contradicts it. "It's fine. I'm glad you two are finally expressing how you feel about each other. Just wrap it up, please?"

Sally retreats back into the dark corridor to her room, and Percy steps out in the hallway with only a three-inch crack in the door behind him.

He leans down to kiss her again, cupping a hand around the nape of her neck, and this time, she kisses him back, placing both hands on either shoulder.

Mini firecrackers go off in his head.

This was the epitome of living.

**the title was inspired by a lyric of an old song from a band I really enjoy and you can only find on youtube - Honey by COIN**

**I think I cranked this story out in like 3 or 4 days, and it probably shows from the lack of significant plot, but i got majorly in my feelings one day and this is what happened.**

**it's cheesy, but i like it. I hope you did too!**

**until next time, leave me some feedback if you want**

**~ Aja :)**


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